348 USEFUL PLANTS OF GUAM. 



Pellionia divaricata. 

 Family Urticaceae. 



A plant collected by Gaudichaud in the Marianne Islands but never described 

 adequittely, possibly identical with Pellionia nigrescens Warburg/' The plants of this 

 genus are succulent herbs with leaves distichously subopposite, often in unequal 

 pairs, one large, the other minute, unequal-sided, 3- veined; stipules persistent; 

 flowers monoecious, in axillary, long-peduncled, contracted, dichotomously branched 

 cymes; male flowers, sepals 4 or 5, obtuse, imbricate, dorsally spurred below the tip; 

 stamens 5, filaments inflexed in bud; pistillode conic; female flowers sessile in axil- 

 lary heads; sepals 4 or 5, subequal; staminodes inflexed; ovary oval, shorter than 

 the sepals; stigma sessile, penicillate, ovule erect; achene embraced by the sepals, 

 compressed, tubercled, endosperm very scanty, cotyledons rounded, radicle conic. 

 References: 

 Pellionia divaricata Gaudich. Bot. Freyc. Voy. 494. 1826. 



Polychroa Lour., 1790, is sometimes cited as a synonym of Pellionia, but there 

 appears to be too much doubt of its identity to warrant its substitution for a well- 

 established name. 

 Pemphis acidula. 



Family Lythraceae. 



Local names. — Nigas (Guam), Bantigui (Philippines). 



A shrub or small tree growing on che strand, with numerous ascending branches 

 densely clothed with gray pubesceni. , small, crowded, sessile leaves, and small pink 

 or white flowers. Leaves opposite, oblong, entire, thick, fleshy; flowers axillary, 

 solitary, peduncles wdth two bracts at their base; calyx tube campanulate, with 12 or 

 more ribs; teeth 6, short, with 6 shorter accessory teeth; petals 6, inserted at the top 

 of the calyx tube, nearly as long as it, wrinkled, white or rose; stamens 12, inserted 

 in two series toward the middle of the calyx tube ; ovary free, at the bottom of the 

 calyx tube, 3-celled at the base; style long; stigma capitate; ovules many, ascending, 

 placentas 3, subbasal; capsule coriaceous, obovoid or nearly globose, included in the 

 calyx tube or exserted nearly half its length, circumscissile somewhat irregularly, 

 ultimately 1-celled; seeds very many, long cuneate-obovoid, angular, smooth, stand- 

 ing out in all directions from what appears to be a free central placenta. 



Branchlets, young leaves, and inflorescence with short gray hairs. b In Guam the 

 wood is used for fuel, for fence stakes, and sometimes for walking sticks. 

 References: 



Pemjrfiis acidula Forst. Char. Gen. 68. t. 34- 1776. 

 Peng-ua (Guam). 



A tree with many branches, given in the list of Don Felipe de la Corte. The 

 wood is durable in salt water and yields planks for building purposes. A resin-like 

 reddish gum exudes from the tree, which may be used for gluing together parts of 

 furniture. Not identified. 



Pennywort, Indian or Marsh.. See Centella asialica. 



Peperomia mariannensis. Peperomia. 



Family Piperaceae. 



A smooth, erect, succulent, aromatic herb with minute flowers growing in slender, 

 catkin-like spikes. Leaves petioled, elliptical-ovate, membranous, glabrous on both 

 sides or ciliolate toward the apex, subpelucid, with pelucid dots, 5-nerved, the mid- 

 dle nerve reaching to the apex, the lateral ones to the middle, the nervules con- 

 verging toward the margin of the apex; petiole smooth; flowers hermaphrodite; 

 spikes dense-flowered, slender, terminal, equaling the leaf, peduncle smooth, equal- 



«Beitrage, Engler's Bot. Jahrb., vol. 13, p. 291, 1890-91. 



b Clarke, in Hooker's Flora British India, vol. 2, p. 573, 1879. 



